TERRAFORMING TERRA
We discuss and comment on the role agriculture will play in the containment of the CO2 problem and address protocols for terraforming the planet Earth.
A model farm template is imagined as the central methodology. A broad range of timely science news and other topics of interest are commented on.

Monday, August 15, 2011

More Airship Development Underway

It appears that there is now a
rush on by all the major manufacturers and a couple of private vendors at the
least to get modern airships flying. Quite
simply modern materials allow us to achieve the scales necessary.

The craft here will be 75 by 30
meters and it is the prototype. It is
reasonable to think that doubling those dimensions are possible and this would
increase capacity eight fold and allow a 400 ton capacity or sufficient to
carry four shipping containers.

With that in place, the airship
is directly competitive with the long haul trucking industry, rail transport
and deep sea shipping. I also think the
cost will quickly drop to sharply expand the demand for the service.

Initially though I see plenty of
outright charter business simply moving fresh produce directly from the farm
processing plant to the urban distribution facility and avoiding thousands of
miles of movement vibration that degrades the product.

The promoters talk about
accessing remote sites, but the paying business will be charters like
that. So expect to be seeing these
passing over daily in the not so distant future.

New Type of Flying Vehicle in Development

Mike O'Sullivan | Los
Angeles

Photo: Aeros Corporation

An artist's version of the new flying ship, Aeroscraft, from California company Aeros Corporation that is being built
outside of Los Angeles with funding from the US
Defense Department

A California
company is developing a new type of airship for transporting cargo and,
possibly, passengers. It is not an airplane and not a blimp, but has
elements of both. The vehicle uses new technology and has commercial and
military applications.

The new flying ship from the Aeros Corporation is called an
Aeroscraft, and is designed to carry more than 50 tons of cargo and make
deliveries thousands of kilometers away.

A demonstration model is being built outside Los Angeles,
with funding from the U.S.
Defense Department. It's in a hangar the Navy once used for its
helium-gas-filled surveillance blimps. The test vehicle is 75 meters long
and 30 meters wide, and should be ready to fly late next year.

Edward Pevzner of Aeros says it will get to hard-to-reach places.

"[This vehicle is ideal for] the north of Canada, Alaska, where big oil
and gas exploration is going on, same as the Amazon region, or the continent of
Africa, which is very poorly developed," said Pevzner.

Aeronautical engineer Tim Kenny says the key to the system is a new technology
that allows the craft to go up or down without removing or adding weight, as is
required on conventional airships. Unlike blimps, this craft requires no
ground crew. And unlike blimps, it is not always lighter than air.
Kenny says it is sometimes lighter and sometimes heavier than the air around
it.

"The whole shape will be filled with helium throughout the whole vehicle,
and then internal to that, we'll have the variable buoyancy system," Kenny
explained.

The helium provides lift for the craft to go up, and when the helium is
compressed, the craft loses its buoyancy and can land. Control and
propulsion are provided by propeller-engines powered by aviation fuel.
Kenny says the craft's light weight and rigid structure are made possible by
new technology.

"Advancements in composites have really motivated and moved this industry
a lot farther along," Kenny noted. "They're able to combine
composites to aluminum and build lightweight structural components."

The demonstration model should fly by late next year. If it works as
planned, even bigger versions may be on the market in a few years.

The U.S.
military is interested in the ship's potential. So is industry.
Commercial applications include moving turbines to hard-to-reach wind farms
that generate electric power. The company says once the ships have proved
their mettle hauling cargo, modified versions could also be built to ferry
passengers.

1 comment:

If a reader were to look into the reasons why these airships where replaced with airplanes after what happened in New Jersey, then you would understand again how big oil has destroyed another great invention, just so a handful of creeps could make billions off of the backs of others. I would like to see this work and for them to make ones for passengers to cross the world in. Look up about the ones the German's had built before WW2 to get an idea about how these things could be better then being on a cruise ship.

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Apr 2017 - 4.1 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO rigorously described as the SPACE TIME PENDULUM, September 2010 I am pleased to report that my essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS' has been published in Physics Essays(AIP) and appeared in their June 2010 quarterly. 40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in relativity,as well as differential geometry(pure math) and of course analysis. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled Paradigms Shift&. I maintain my blog as a day book and research tool to retain data and record impressions and interpretations on material read. Do join my blog and receive Four items of interest daily Monday through Saturday.